How popular is the baby name Susan in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Susan.

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Popularity of the baby name Susan


Posts that mention the name Susan

The 5 siblings of the Wright brothers

Wilbur and Orville Wright (in 1904)
Wilbur and Orville Wright

Clergyman Milton Wright and his wife, Susan, married in 1859 and welcomed seven children.

Two of those children, Wilbur and Orville, went on to design, build, and fly the world’s first engine-powered, heavier-than-air flying machine in late 1903.

So, how did Wilbur and Orville come to have their names?

Their father, believing the family surname was “too common, was determined to give his children distinctive first names.” Here are those distinctive first names, in order from oldest child to youngest:

  1. Reuchlin (born in 1861) was named after German theologian Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522).
    • His nickname was Reuch, pronounced roosh.
  2. Lorin (b. 1862) was “named for a town selected at random on a map” because his parents “thought it sounded nice.”
  3. Wilbur (b. 1867) was named after American minister Wilbur Fisk (1792-1839).
  4. Otis (b. 1870, twin) died in infancy.
  5. Ida (b. 1870, twin) died in infancy.
  6. Orville (b. 1871) was named after American minister Orville Dewey (1794-1882).
  7. Katharine (b. 1874), whose grandmothers were both named Catherine, was likely given a family name.
    • “Variant spellings of her name were common on both sides of the family. The choice of Katharine suggests that her parents wanted to commemorate the family name while giving this child the same sense of distinction as their sons.”

Out of just Wilbur and Orville, which name do you prefer? Why?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Wilbur and Orville Wright with Flyer II at Huffman Prairie (public domain)

Free katsu for people named Kat and Sue

katsukare

Is your name Kat, Sue, or anything similar (e.g., Katie, Suzy, Katrina, Susan, Katherine, Suzanne)? Do you live in the UK?

If so, you can get a free Katsu-based dish (the Katsu Curry, the Katsu Burger, or the Katsu Carbonara) at participating Banana Tree restaurants from September 22 to 25.

To participate in the promotion, visit your local Banana Tree after 4pm on one of the above dates, purchase a drink of your choice, and present both your ID and your “Big Flavour Club” membership code.

The giveaway celebrates National Katsu Day (Sep. 27) — which was invented by a different UK restaurant several years ago. :)

P.S. The Japanese word katsu — which refers to a piece of meat that has been coated in panko, deep-fried, and cut into strips — is a shortened form of katsuretsu, a transliteration of the English word cutlet.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Koshien katsukare 2016 (25623057670) by Kanesue under CC BY 2.0.

Missouri quadruplets: Adam, Benjamin, Christopher, Dylan

quadruplets and stork

In December of 1999, Susan and Rick Hellebusch of Missouri welcomed quadruplets, all boys.

The babies were born at 30 weeks gestation and weighed less than three pounds each.

What were they named?

Adam, Benjamin, Christopher, and Dylan.

Why? Because Susan and Rick had noticed that the babies were labeled A, B, C, and D on the sonogram. They’d already chosen the name Dylan, so they “decided to start at the top of the alphabet to select the remaining three” names.

The couple went on to have two more babies, daughters named Elizabeth and Maria.

P.S. As a nursing student in the early 2020s, Ben Hellebusch happened to meet one of the neonatal nurses who’d cared for him and his brothers. The nurse still remembered the quads’ alphabetical names, saying: “I thought it was the cutest thing that [their mom] did that.”

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Multiplication (1905) by Gordon Ross

What gave the baby name Miles a boost in 1986?

The characters Gordon, Susan, and baby Miles from the TV series "Sesame Street" (in late 1985)
Gordon, Susan, and Miles from “Sesame Street“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the usage of Miles rose slowly during the first half of the 1980s, then saw a higher-than-expected increase in 1986 specifically:

Boys named MilesBoys named Myles
1988887 [rank: 265th]385 [rank: 464th]
1987835 [rank: 262nd]411 [rank: 434th]
1986777 [rank: 275th]382 [rank: 440th]
1985456 [rank: 397th]213 [rank: 602nd]
1984409 [rank: 408th]162 [rank: 681st]

The spelling Myles saw a similar increase the same year.

Why?

My guess is a character from the children’s TV series Sesame Street, which was “the most-watched program on public television” in the mid-1980s. (Fourteen million people — five million of whom were adults — tuned in to the daily program at least once per week.)

In December of 1985, two of the show’s main characters, married couple Susan and Gordon (played by actors Loretta Long and Roscoe Orman), adopted a baby boy named Miles. He was played by Roscoe Orman’s own 1-year-old son, Miles Orman.

The real Miles continued portraying the fictional Miles on Sesame Street for about eight years. The role was then handed off to child actor Imani Patterson.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Miles?

P.S. A year before joining the cast of Sesame Street, Roscoe Orman played the title character in the movie Willie Dynamite…

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Sesame Street